Carolyn Beehler artwork: "The Factory of Franklin"

Carolyn Beehler is a paper artist living in Franklin, Tennessee. She was born in California but grew up in the South. She attended elementary school on Henpeck Lane and later a classical Christian school and finally art school at O'More College of Design. She spent the rest of her twenties moving around to disparate places including Shanghai, Italy, L.A. and Bloomington, Indiana, because she worried she'd settle down and never get to see the world. Besides art, she likes learning about gardening, shoe design, woodworking and writing.

From the artist:

"This is my big one. I like to have one or two large statement pieces per collection, and this 3'x4' is my statement piece for the Unprecedented collection. Besides, you can't convey such an airy and expansive space on a small scale.

Also unique to this piece is the higher perspective at the top of the stairs, across from Jeni's. The higher perspective pulls you up into the narrator's realm where you see the big picture, both literally and mythically. Or, for that matter, make that mental shift in the first place to discover that here might be a story, not just a picture.

Though the people are parked in their conversations, you definitely feel currents moving around, as if the concrete floors were turning into streams and rivers. Most of the floor is wrapped or swirled with jewels or flowers or reptilian skin. To the left a cluster of yellow letters gives the impression of a brushfire, and to the right is a bored beagle plopped down amidst golden jewels. Some pieces of paper are cut and layered to resemble cat scratches. Other sharp angles emerge here and there, a high heel or a broken flag scooting along a crevice.

Paper painting is an art form that shuffles familiar word and image associations out of their normal habitats to shuffle the synapses in your own mind. The point isn't to be just silly, as in a giant upside-down goose. What is cool and meaningful about paper painting is that it keeps you on your toes, to look like a baby with wonder, not presumption, at a moment in history unfolding. A flamingo zooming toward a hand, a hand Michelangelo painted for Adam, suspended like a puppeteer above a dad's ball cap, twists your expectations just enough to mute your left brain and give your right one a chance to speak."

Value
$30,000.00